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Tuesday, 3 March 2009

One of my highlights of the footballing weekend was the sight of Giovanni throwing his toys out of the pram in in classic sulky foreign footballer style

We haven’t been treated to the sight of such acts of petulance for a while so I thought I would look back at some of the foreign players who pioneered the art of sulkiness:

Eric CantonaWho else to start with but ‘Le Grand Erique’. When he wasn’t strutting around with his collar up and stamping on opponents he was kung-fu kicking fans in the stand (though I admit I did find that quite funny). Love him or hate him, he was one of the Premier League’s most entertaining foreign imports.

Paolo Di CanioOur Paolo just couldn’t control that fiery Latin temperament of his and often found himself in trouble with the football authorities. No more so than when he pushed over referee Paul Alcock when playing for Sheffield Wednesday in 1999 (though again I also found that quite funny).

Alex NyarkoThis buffoon cost Everton nearly £4.5 million in the summer of 2000 and was tipped to be the next Patrick Vieira. But the only similarity with the Arsenal midfielder was that he had two legs. After six months of dreadful performances things came to a head at Highbury when, in the middle of a particularly appalling display, an Everton fan invaded the pitch offering to swap shirts with him. Nyarko was so shocked he proceeded to storm off the pitch and refused to play for the club ever again. He did though, two years later when the club couldn’t flog him anywhere else.